1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to image generating apparatuses, databases and storage mediums, and more particularly to an image generating apparatus which generates humanoid character images and operation guide sequences, a database which is suited for creating the operation guide sequences, and a computer-readable storage medium which stores a program for causing a computer to generate the humanoid character images and the operation guide sequences.
In this specification, a “humanoid character” refers to an artificial character having behaviors and expressions which are similar to those of humans, where the artificial character may be other than human.
When outputting communication information such as a command, warning and help from a terminal equipment with respect a user, character information is used in most cases. However, when outputting communication information such as information related to emotions and degree or extent with respect to the user, it is difficult to express such information by the character information. In addition, in the case of a user who is unfamiliar with the terminal equipment, it is necessary to first teach the user how to operate the terminal equipment. In such cases, it is possible to display various communication information with respect to the user in an easily understandable manner by employing a user interface which uses humanoid character images.
In this specification, the “communication information” refers to information which is to be conveyed or transferred to the user.
When the user interface using the humanoid character images is employed, it is possible to output a system status to indicate that an error is caused by a machine error, and to output an actual operation image, so as to facilitate the operation of the terminal equipment such as an automatic vending machine and an ATM.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a humanoid character image which is displayed on a display part of the ATM. In FIG. 1, a humanoid character 503 which is shown on an enlarged scale on the right side of the figure is displayed on a display part 501 of an ATM 500.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, when generating the humanoid character image, a general purpose image editing tool typified by a director manufactured by Macromedia, for example, is used in most cases. The general purpose image editing tool calls for quantitative attributes such as a length and an amount of image data, and makes a visual arrangement and connection by displaying the quantitative information of the image data, so as to generate a desired sequential image. Each image data does not indicate a sequential image, and does not represent a series of operations. In other words, a sequential image is created and a humanoid character image and speech or sound are output together, by reading the image data and audio data from files, specifying connecting relationship of the image data and the audio data by the image editing tool, and connecting each of the individual images in correspondence with the audio data.
The human susceptibility or impression with respect to human faces and behaviors is extremely high compared to other images. For this reason, the humanoid character image is easily recognized by the human as compared to other images. Accordingly, it is possible to draw the user's attention by using the humanoid character image, and the leadership of the operation can be transferred from the machine side to the human side, thereby making it possible to reduce uncomfortable feelings towards the operation of the terminal equipment.
However, how the user interprets the communication information which is indicated by the motions such as the expressions and behaviors within the humanoid character image, cannot be guaranteed unless a debugging process is actually performed manually. In other words, without the manual debugging process which is performed by the human operator, it is impossible to guarantee that a desired communication information is actually conveyed accurately to the user. According to the conventional debugging process, when creating a sequential image by connecting the individual images, a judgement is made to confirm whether or not the sequential image appears as if the humanoid character is performing a specific operation. Consequently, it is impossible to automatically evaluate the reliability of the communication information included in the humanoid character image with respect to the susceptibility or impression of the user.
For this reason, by reproducing the generated humanoid character image which is a sequential image, the human operator actually looks at the reproduced humanoid character image to judge whether or not the desired communication information can be perceived. If an inconvenient image portion exists where the desired communication information cannot be perceived as a result of the judgement, it is essential to perform the debugging process to modify contents of this inconvenient image portion so that the desired communication information is positively conveyed to the user. When modifying the contents of the inconvenient image portion of the sequential image, the expressions or behaviors of the humanoid character are changed, for example, so that the desired communication information can be perceived by the human operator.
Preferably, the human operator who actually looks at the reproduced humanoid character image and judges whether or not the desired communication information can be perceived, is other than the person who created the humanoid character image. In addition, it is preferable that this judgement is made by a plurality of people. Furthermore, the debugging process must be performed repeatedly after the inconvenient image portion is modified. As a result, there are problems in that it conventionally requires troublesome processes and considerable time to complete the humanoid character image which can positively convey the desired communication information to the user.